


Baby On Board

by kijilinn



Series: Matt Graver and Katie Taylor [2]
Category: Sicario (2015)
Genre: Baby Daddy, F/F, F/M, Multi, Parenthood, Pregnancy, Unexpected Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy, unprotected sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-07 07:09:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15213848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kijilinn/pseuds/kijilinn
Summary: They had a few blazing nights six months ago. And then they went their separate ways.There's nothing like a surprise to make your vacation a little bit weirder.





	1. Chapter 1

“Take a walk, Graver.”

“I will not fucking take a walk. There are angles that still need to be worked out and--”

“Suspended with pay, three weeks. Get out of my face, Matt.”

“I’m not done here!”

“Want to make it five and without pay?”

Matt Graver rocked back on his heels and glowered at the man behind the desk. Maybe it was time for a vacation. He usually didn’t argue to stay on the job longer than necessary, but this particular job had gotten deeper under his skin than he had expected. The trafficking cases always burned him harder than anything else. He huffed once through his nose before turning and stalking out of the office. “If you need me, fuck you, I’m leaving my phone here.”

“See you in three.”

Matt tried not to stomp his way down the stairs of the government building while he was headed to his car. It was a childish reaction to the very real frustration of being told to let go of something that made him sick to his stomach. There were at least four girls still out there and it wouldn’t take more than another two weeks of stirring the pot to get them home again. But there were complications. There were always complications.

He drove until something made him stop and he found himself sitting in the airport long-term parking lot, glaring at the building. “Well, why the fuck not?” he muttered to himself and locked up the car. After this long doing this job, home was a nonsense word. Matt walked inside and leaned on the ticket counter to eyeball the clerk. “Where’s the next flight going?”

“E-excuse me?” the clerk asked nervously.

“What’s the next flight I can get on right now? I don’t care where it’s going.”

“Well,” the clerk pulled up her screen and kept one eye on him as she typed in the necessary search string, “there’s a 4:15 going to Oakland with two empty seats, a 4:20 international for Warsaw with one, a 4:27 for Washington…”

“The state or the city?”

“City. Dulles Airport.”

Matt rubbed his hands over his face and shook his head. “No, not D.C. When’s your next flight to New York?”

“4:45 and it’s full.”

“Is the marshal’s seat full?”

The clerk stared at him. “No, sir. They hadn’t scheduled a marshal for this flight. Why?”

Matt pulled out his credentials and put them on the counter. “Book me, Danno.”

By the time he had finished the paperwork and red tape of securing the marshal’s seat and then walked through security--to the immense amusement of the TSA guards--Matt had to run to catch the final boarding call. The clerk must have called ahead because they were holding the door for him and he smiled his thanks to the flight attendant as she scanned his boarding pass. “Welcome aboard, Marshal.”

“Thanks.”

He parked himself in the flight marshal’s seat and tried not to drum his fingers against the armrests as the attendants when through their preflight checks. Now that he had a direction in mind, he was tired of waiting to get there. Vacation really didn’t work for him; he always had to be doing something, even if it was something as mundane as sleeping for twelve hours. When the attendant reminded him, he turned his phone to airplane mode. The plane taxied, took the long acceleration to the end of the runway and took off.

As soon as they were in the air, Matt kicked off his sandals, reclined the seat and fell asleep.

***

“We’re coming in over New York City now, folks. We should be on the ground around 12:35 am local time. If you could all settle in for landing, we’ll have you down soon. Thanks for flying with us.”

Matt sat up and briefly rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes before checking his watch. “Fucking jet lag’s gonna kill me,” he muttered to himself as he pulled the seat up and tightened his belt. He watched out the window as the flight circled over Manhattan and angled down for the landing. As dark as it was in the sky, the city itself blazed with light. As much as he knew there were dozens of reasons to hate the place, New York was still beautiful.

He got off the plane, double-checked his wallet and phone, pushed his hands into his pockets and walked out of the airport and into the street. He bought a transit pass for the week, got on the bus. He took a few more changes of route, then dropped down into the subways to ride underground. He smiled when a young woman leaned up against him and batted her eyes, but gently refused and looked back down at his phone.

He opened his eyes again and found himself in Times Square. He knew he should probably do something about his tendency to check out like that when he knew an area, but autopilot was a comfortable non-place when his mind was still buzzing with frustration and anger. He smiled to himself that his feet still knew the way and turned down the side street to find the little hole-in-the-wall bar. He sat down at the end of the bar and took a moment to ponder his hunger levels before ordering onions rings and a beer. The bartender was new and Matt watched her move as she drew the beer from the tap and handed his order back to the kitchen. She was pretty but young for his tastes, probably in her early twenties. Maybe she had an older sister. “Or an aunt,” he muttered at himself and grinned sheepishly when she raised an eyebrow at him over the beer. “Long flight,” he told her.

“Where’d you fly from?” she asked. She settled at the counter and leaned her forearms against her side. It was a slow night, early Thursday morning and most of the patrons were either hard-bitten regulars or travelers like him.

“LAX,” he said and sipped the beer.

The bartender grinned at him. “Business or pleasure?”

“Neither,” Matt sighed and turned the beer mug in his hands. “Mandatory vacation time.”

“So you’re a workaholic, then.”

“Something like that.”

“Onion rings,” called a voice and the bartender turned away from him to collect his order.

But Matt just stared. He knew that voice. He stood up and walked the length of the bar until he could see through the little window into the kitchens. The bright blue eyes under a fringe of ginger hair were shockingly familiar and when she looked up briefly to make sure the bartender had collected the order, she caught sight of him and froze.

Katie Taylor.

In a moment, he had a flash of those eyes watching him hungrily while she rode his lap in the back of a government issue SUV. The smell of her hair when he buried his face in her shoulder, rutting to completion. Her laugh when they parted and she invited him back anytime. The smokey sound of her moan when he pressed her against the wall of her bedroom and the feel of her skin under his hands as they showered, only to fall back into bed again immediately. Matt had to shake his head hard to clear his mind and blinked again.

The eyes in the little window were gone.

“Is something the matter?” the bartender asked him with humor in her voice. “The rings are over here.”

“I just…” Matt shook his head again and returned to the stool where he had been sitting. “Thought I heard someone I knew.” He bit into one of the onion rings and contemplated his beer in silence while the bartender wandered away to wait on a few new patrons.

How to explain his own reaction. He heard her voice and his heart had leaped into his throat. His hands had started to shake and a rush of excitement broke over him like a kid at prom. When he saw her eyes, she was all he could even think about wanting. His palms itched with wanting to touch her again. Matt closed his eyes tightly, trying to will the feeling away.

“Matt?”

His head snapped up and he was on his feet before he even knew what he was doing. “Katie,” he gasped.

The woman standing at the end of the bar and watching him carefully looked like Katie. She sounded like Katie. But he did a double-take, took in the obvious swelling of her abdomen, the way she leaned on the bar a little to give her feet and knees a break, the added fullness of her face. “You’re pregnant,” he said softly. It slipped out of him before his brain could think of a better way to say it, but there it was.

Katie smiled at him, her eyes half-closed in irony. “Very observant, Matthew. I can see why you scored so highly in school.”

Matt winced and came close to her, reached one hand toward her shoulder and then thought better of it and stopped, his eyes flicking to her left hand. It had been a while. Who knew what had changed. “Sorry. Just caught me by surprise. You look good. How have you been?”

“Pregnant,” she chuckled and he smiled. Her sense of humor was still intact, at least. “And don’t think I didn’t see that look. No, I’m not seeing anyone. I’m not married.” She held up her hand and wiggled the fingers for him. “No ring.”

“So I guess you haven’t had many repeats of the night we ran into each other, huh?”

“Not for the last six months, no.”

“Six months…” Matt felt his brain making connections but in spite of how good he was normally at doing these things, he felt like he was thinking through jello. Must be the jet lag. “How…”

Katie reached up and put her hand over his mouth. “Stop. Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it taken care of.”

Matt stared at her. His breath hitched in and he tried to keep from blacking out while he struggled with the awareness of what she was telling him. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked softly against her hand.

“I didn’t want you to feel obligated to do something about it,” Katie sighed and took her hand back. She shifted her hips and climbed onto one of the barstools, leaned her head in one hand with her elbow on the counter. “I’m okay, Matt. You don’t have to worry about it.”

Matt stepped closer again and held up his hands on either side of her face, waiting and chewing his lip, trying to decide if his touch would be welcomed or not. Her eyes were tired. So was her smile. After leaving him to hang uncertain for a few seconds, she reached up with one hand and touched the back of his wrist, pulled his hand to her cheek and leaned against his palm with a sigh. “What if I want to worry about it?” he asked her.

Katie’s eyes hardened and she whispered, “Don’t. I’m a grown ass woman, Matt. I can make these decisions for myself.”

“Never said you weren’t,” he murmured back. “It’s one of the things I like about you.” He traced her cheek with his thumb and sighed. “I’m serious, though. Were you going to tell me? Y’know, eventually?”

“Maybe.” Katie sighed and shook her head. “I’m still on the clock, Matt. I need to get back.”

“When does your shift end?”

“Two.”

Matt traced her cheek with his thumb. “I can wait. If you’ll let me.”

“You don’t have to.”

His hands were shaking again and Matt paused to focus on stilling them. “I want to.”

Katie smile with a sad look in her eyes, then leaned up to kiss him. “Okay. I won’t blame you if you want to leave, though. Just saying.”

He couldn’t help himself. Matt held her face gently in his palms and kissed her. He kissed her like he’d wanted to for the last six months, ever since she vanished out of his life and he vanished out of hers. Katie gasped and her arms came up around him. Matt just kept kissing her, afraid to let go again. Finally, he broke the kiss to lean his forehead against hers. “I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered.

***

Katie stared at the fryers as they sizzled their way through two more batches of fries and a batch of onion rings. She smelled like fried onions and sweat. The smell was nauseating and had only gotten worse the further into her pregnancy she had gotten. She knew there was going to be a point not far from now when she wouldn’t be able to stand working in the kitchen. She would probably switch jobs with Jack then, tend bar while the other woman worked the grill.

Deep inside, she felt a shift and smiled, putting one hand over the swell of her belly. She had only started feeling regular movement like this a few weeks ago and it never got old. Before that quickening, she had just been rounding out with a condition, a parasitical disease that she considered more than once ending with a quick trip to a doctor. Every time she had considered it, she saw Matt’s eyes watching her, his smile warm as he kissed her. If this baby looked anything like its father, hearts would break around the world. And the disease became a baby again.

Katie had never wanted children. Maybe once or twice in her life, she had considered motherhood usually at the prodding of a partner or her own biological clock. But she always came back to the same conclusion: she would be a terrible mother. She would hate it, resent the child, ruin the life of a human being who shared her DNA. When she was faced with the reality of her own pregnancy, though, she found she couldn’t say no.

She had been prepared to raise this baby alone, maybe with some help from her mother and sisters in law. When she and Jack had started living together, Jack had agreed immediately to help with the baby in any way she could. As their relationship grew stronger, Jack was the one who held Katie when she was sobbing her way through another hormonal spike or crash. She was the one holding Katie’s hair while morning sickness--which was a complete misnomer; it happened any time of the day--wracked her with aches and vomit.

And now.

Here was Matt.

Sitting at the bar, reading something on his phone while Jack kept his beer full. After four refills, Matt had put his hand over the mouth of the mug and requested water, but it was clear he wasn’t ready to leave. Not by a long shot.

The timer on the fries bleated at her and Katie popped up the basket, dumped it under the drying lamp. She did the same with the second basket, stirred them with salt, basketed them and called to Jack, “Fries.” She basketed the onion rings and called forward again. This time, Jack stopped at the pickup window to study her. “What?”

“Are you okay?” Jack asked softly. “Do you want me to get him to leave?”

“No,” Katie sighed. “He’s okay, leave him be.”

Jack’s eyes searched hers and she whispered, “He’s the father, isn’t he?” When Katie nodded, Jack sighed and closed her eyes. “What are you going to do?”

“Let him walk me home,” Katie said with a small smile and a shrug. “That’s all he’s asked for so far and I think I can manage that much.”

“But what do you want?” Jack asked urgently.

“For him to piggyback me home, to be honest. My feet are killing me.”

“Katie.”

“I don’t know what I want yet, okay?” Katie rubbed sweat out of her eye with the back of her wrist, just behind the rubber gloves. “Part of me really likes the idea of someone else being around to pay for the kid’s medical bills and tuition. Part of me doesn’t want to give him two cents of my baby’s time. He’s not a bad guy, Jack. He’s really not. I just don’t know him all that well and it was… y’know just a hookup. An accident.”

“A happy accident,” Jack said with a small smile and Katie chuckled.

“Not at first, but yeah. Now it’s happy.”

“You’re gonna be such an awesome mom, Katie.”

“We’ll see.” Katie looked out the window into the bar and saw that Matt had lifted his head at her voice and was watching her, something completely unreadable in his face. “In the meantime, onion rings are up.”

***

Matt sat at the bar until last call at a quarter to two. He raised his eyebrows when Katie came out and she smiled when he offered to help clean up. She introduced him officially to Jacqueline O'Brien, Jack the bartender. He helped them wipe down surfaces, took care of turning the chairs onto the tables while Katie pushed the mop around the floor. When the bar was cleaned and buttoned up, Matt stood on the street while Katie and Jack locked up and joined him.

“How do you usually get home?” he asked curiously.

“Train,” Katie said with a shrug. “They run until 3.”

Matt blinked. “Alone?”

“We’re roommates,” Jack said. Her tone was almost possessive and Matt found himself wondering what else they shared besides an apartment. “The owner is my uncle and agreed to schedule us together so we can walk home together.”

“Nice.” Matt nodded to them and let them head down the street toward their usual train station. “Don’t mind me.”

“We won’t,” Jack tossed over her shoulder and looped one arm through Katie’s. They walked together, shoulder-to-shoulder and chatted quietly, content to exclude him from the conversation.

They had only walked a few blocks toward the station when a taxi slowed down beside them and the driver’s window came down. “Y’all okay?” he yelled over. It was clear he was addressing the women, but his eyes were on Matt, searching.

“He’s with us, Parker,” Jack chuckled and waved. “We’re good, thanks.”

“Dude looks like a fucking spook,” Parker replied. “Careful with him.”

“We will be.” Jack waved her hand at him again. “Go on, Parker. We’re fine.” When the taxi rolled on, she looked over her shoulder at Matt’s disgruntled expression. “That’s the other reason we don’t mind walking at night. Parker’s like a one-man neighborhood watch down here.”

“Remind me to tip him when I see him next,” Matt murmured. The women both went very quiet at that and he wondered what he had said wrong.

The subway ride to their apartment was awkwardly silent and Matt tried very hard not to loom. More than anything, he wanted an hour alone with Katie to talk about this, but her roommate had made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t going to leave them alone for long. Every once in a while, he looked up to find Jack staring at him with a vicious intensity that he wasn’t sure how to interpret. At their stop, he followed them out of the station, up the stairs and down the street for another two blocks before they turned to an apartment building and Jack pulled out her keys.

“This is us,” Katie said quietly. Matt tried not to wince at the finality and dismissal in her voice. “Thank you for the escort.”

“You’re welcome,” he murmured, then sighed in frustration. “Katie, please tell me we can talk about this. I don’t want to just… walk away. It doesn’t have to be tonight or anything. Hell, it doesn’t have to be this year. I just want to talk to you.”

“My number hasn’t changed,” she told him. “Has yours?” When he shook his head, she smiled and reached up to touch his face. Matt closed his eyes and leaned toward her hand. “How long are you here?”

“Three weeks or whenever I run out of money.”

“There’s an endorsement for a stable relationship,” Jack snorted from behind Katie.

Katie glared over her shoulder, then stood on her toes to kiss Matt. “I’ll call you tomorrow, okay? We’ll get lunch or something. Just us.”

With a long sigh, Matt nodded, then realized her hand on his cheek had shifted position. Her thumb and first two fingers were stretched out and her ring and pinkie fingers were tucked down against her palm. She tapped the shape against his cheek three times and smiled at him, then turned and followed Jack up the stairs to their apartment.

He knew that shape. He scrambled to search his memory for it and closed his eyes with a smile when he found it.

It was the ASL sign for “three.”

“Just the three of us,” he murmured and nodded, turned and went to look for somewhere to stay.


	2. Chapter 2

Katie woke up when the baby stretched and stomped on her bladder. She grunted, looked at the clock, sighed and got up. It was seven thirty and she wasn’t even close to rested, but she knew this baby well enough already that if that stretch was happening, she wasn’t going to sleep for at least an hour.

She slipped out of the bedroom and started the coffee pot. She knew caffeine wasn’t necessarily good for babies, but she wasn’t about to quit entirely: she had switched to half-caff when she realized she was pregnant. Katie paused to lean on the counter before she pulled out her prenatal vitamins and drank a glass of water.

She looked at her phone where she had left it charging in the kitchen the previous night. She kept wondering if she actually had seen Matt last night. So many of their interactions had been surreal: the night in the bar when her brother had beaten him at darts. The night she stumbled drunkenly into him and he had driven her home. The afternoon backseat fucking that had devolved into his coming back to her place and fucking her like that for the rest of the evening. Only to completely vanish the next day like she had imagined him. She picked up the phone and thumbed through the contacts until she found his name. He was still there. Black and white in digital. He existed, assuming she wasn’t seeing things or had invented him herself.

She tapped the call button and held up the phone.

Two rings. Three.

“Graver.” His voice sounded raw and gravelly and she tried not to smile. His morning voice sounded like his sex voice. She needed to wake him up with a phone call more often.

“It’s Katie,” she said softly. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

“No, I was already up.”

“That’s a lie.”

“It is, yes.” He gave a faint grunt and she had the impression he was sitting up. “I wanted to seem like I wasn’t a fucking layabout.”

“You flew in at midnight,” Katie chuckled. “You had every right to sleep in. I’m sorry I woke you.”

“You worked your ass off until two,” he countered. “Why are you up so early?”

She paused and looked down at the swell of her belly. She was cradling it with her free hand. She hadn’t even noticed. “Had to pee,” she said finally. “Should I leave you alone to sleep a few more hours or do you want to get some coffee?”

“Can you drink coffee?” Matt asked, his voice genuinely bewildered.

“I can drink whatever the fuck I want,” she snorted. “I don’t drink much caffeine right now for the sake of the baby. But that doesn’t keep me from visiting coffee shops and getting decaf or herbal tea or a milkshake.” She ran her hand over the swelling and felt the baby squirming inside. It was such a trippy feeling, that movement. “So, breakfast? Or lunch?”

“Breakfast sounds perfect, but what place is open this early in New York?”

“Live here long enough, you know where to go.” Katie grinned at his almost miffed silence and added, “Where are you staying? I’ll meet you there.”

“Let me get a shower and I’ll meet you outside your apartment,” Matt said. “Twenty minutes?”

“Sounds good.”

There was a pause and Katie could tell Matt had something he wanted to say but was struggling for the words. Finally, he whispered, “Just us, right? Jack seems like a fine girl and all, but…”

“You, me and the baby makes three,” she whispered back. “When I say ‘us,’ that’s what I mean. Jack is just a friend.”

“Right.” He exhaled and she could almost hear his forced smile. “See you soon, then.”

“You, too.”

When she put the phone down and turned, she found Jack watching her from the doorway to the bedroom, her eyes worried. “Breakfast, huh?”

Katie sighed. She walked across the little kitchen and leaned on the little kitchenette table. ”I need to talk to him, Jack,” she said softly. “I can’t decide what I really want until I’ve explored all my options.”

Jack nodded without speaking for a long time, then said, “I get that. I do. I’m just worried about you, Katie. I’m going back to bed, then. Call me if you need me, okay?”

“I will.” She smiled and held out her arms for a hug, which Jack gave her obligingly. “See you later.”

When Matt arrived, Katie tried not to smirk: he was wearing the same clothes he had been the previous night. His hair was wet and slicked back but he clearly hadn’t shaved. He caught sight of her standing in the alcove beside the door and his inward-turned expression blossomed into a smile. He paused to lean on the wall beside her shelter. “You wake up like that, don’t you?”

“Like what?” Katie laughed.

“You know. Gorgeous.” He rubbed one hand over his face with a faint grumbling groan. “Coffee. I heard there was coffee somewhere on this godforsaken island.”

“Follow me,” she grinned and reached to grab his collar and walked off. He followed her, laughing until she let him go to walk on his own. Then, he fell into step beside her, his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans. After a few blocks in a silence much more comfortable than the previous night’s walk, she took two quick turns to get around to the staff entry of a bakery and knocked on the door.

“They are clearly not open,” Matt observed and raised an eyebrow at her.

“Nope,” she agreed with a grin. The door cracked open and a dark pair of eyes peeked out at her. “Good morning, Julio. Mind if I bring company?”

“Katie!” The door opened the rest of the way and the man behind it pulled her into a happy hug. He paused to regard Matt critically. “Depends on the company. Looks like a spook to me.”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Matt asked helplessly.

Julio tapped the side of his nose and nodded seriously. “Can smell ‘em.”

“I just showered!”

Katie giggled and pulled Matt inside after her. “Hush, you, or I’ll regret bringing you along.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Julio smiled and offered Matt his hand. “Any friend of Katie’s is welcome. What can I get you, brother?”

Matt took his hand. There was flour worked into the creases of his dark skin, but Julio’s grip was strong and sure, his eyes steady and friendly when he met Matt’s. “I was told there would be coffee,” he said with a smile.

“Best coffee in the borough,” Julio grinned and nodded them through to the cafe part of the bakery. “Make yourselves comfortable and I’ll get you set up. Decaf, Katie? Or chai?”

“Do you still have some of that toffee-flavored creamer?”

“Of course.”

“Decaf, please.” Katie eased herself into a chair and smirked at Matt as he joined her at the table. “See? Just gotta know which door to knock on.”

“I bow to your superior wisdom.” Matt smiled at her. “So… how long have you been in New York? Last time I saw you--”

“We didn’t have much time for talking about our lives and career plans,” Katie pointed out and Matt grinned. “I’ve been here about three months. My time in Texas was just a short-term contract.”

“Short-term…” Matt paused and realized he had no idea what she did for a living, besides frying food in a bar. For someone who was having his baby, he barely knew Katie Taylor at all.

Katie chuckled at the look on his face. “I’m a consultant, Matt. I had a six-month contract to consult a creative team on their new advertising campaign. The pay’s great but finding jobs sucks ass. I’m freelance, so it’s pretty much just me pounding the pavement 24/7. It’s why I’m working at the bar: I need a break from resumes and politely disguised begging.”

“So, just ad consulting?” he asked and glanced up when Julio brought them coffee mugs and a dinner plate-sized cinnamon roll dripping in icing. “And what the fuck is that?”

“Breakfast,” Julio smiled smugly.

“This baby is going to have such a fucking sweet tooth,” Katie sighed happily and hacked herself off a piece with her fork. “Thank you, Julio. You’re my hero.”

“I know,” he said cheerfully and kissed the top of her head before saluting Matt with his fingers and wandering back into the kitchen.

“Also,” Katie said around her mouthful of roll, “just a friend.”

Matt nodded as he sliced himself some of the roll and transferred it to a plate with his fingers. “You’re a friendly kind of girl,” he observed and licked the icing from his thumb.

Katie glared at him and swallowed. “When you say it like that, it makes it sound like I’ll sleep with anything.” Matt smirked at her and she kicked him under the table. “I slept with you, so you should probably reconsider that phrasing.”

“There wasn’t much sleeping involved in anything we did,” Matt chuckled. When Katie kicked him again, he pulled the laugh back into a smile and inclined his head. “Okay, yes. That did make you sound cheap and I’m sorry. It’s hard to resist a good straight line.”

“It wasn’t a straight line,” Katie huffed and sipped her coffee. “I’m bi.”

Matt paused with the cinnamon roll halfway to his mouth and then put it down again, looking up at her. “You’re… what now?”

“Bisexual,” Katie clarified, then seemed to realize the look on his face was a little shell-shocked. “What, is that a problem?”

“No, I… just…” Matt stuttered to a stop and stared down at his plate. “Didn’t see it coming, I guess.”

Katie sighed. “Matt, as far as I’m concerned, everyone is bi until proven otherwise. I forget sometimes that not everyone thinks that way. But look at it this way: you really don’t know me at all. And you suggested that I’m easy?”

“Hell, Katie, I’d be the first one to point out I’m not exactly a monk,” snorted Matt. “I guess I feel like I knew you better. I don’t know why. I mean, one night in a bar with your brother kicking my ass at darts and another fucking you senseless doesn’t exactly mean I’ve seen something deep and profound.”

“Just that you’ve got a better memory than most,” agreed Katie. She drank a little more coffee, her eyes thoughtful and fixed in the middle distance. “Do you want to get to know me better? Or should this just be a… a happy accident?”

Matt rolled his mug in his hands. “Katie, there are two things I want you to know about me right now. One is that I believe really strongly that kids need male role models in their lives, especially when they’re growing up. My dad was a shithole and I really hope I’m not. I want to be a dad. I just never… planned it out or anything.”

Katie watched his face and nodded. “Okay. And the other?”

Matt looked at her and his lips half-curled into a smile. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since that night. Maybe I’m a shallow heel, but I can’t get through a week without dreaming about you at least once. Every time I see someone with hair your color or a build like yours, I do a double take and am disappointed it isn’t you.” He studied her reaction, noted the stony set to her eyes and the wariness in her body language. “Yes, I want to get to know you better. If you tell me to leave, I will. If you tell me to never contact you or our kid again, I will. But I want to be here. I want to be a part of this.”

Katie was quiet for a long time. She nibbled at her cinnamon roll. She drank her coffee. She assured Julio everything was fine when he came out to refill their mugs. Finally, she sighed and pressed her fingertips into her eyes. “Matt, I don’t know what I want. I said it to Jack just this morning. I don’t know. I never wanted kids before but when I found out I was pregnant, it just felt right. I’m not a great person. I’m not even a good person half the time. I’m shit in relationships, but I’m excited about being a mom.” She looked up at him with a helpless shrug. “I could use the help. I hate admitting it, but I could.”

“So…”

“So be my baby daddy?” she grinned weakly and shrugged again.

Matt chuckled and reached to take her hands around the cinnamon roll plate. “Just tell me how I can help, Katie.”

***

They walked around the city, took the train to Manhattan. They walked through the tourist areas, got lunch from an Armenian food truck and sat in Central Park to eat it. They talked about work--he told her he had a desk job with the FBI--and school. They talked about family. Matt asked more about her brothers and she told him with glee. He talked about his sister.

Around three, Katie stumbled a little while they were walking and Matt reached automatically to help. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” she insisted, but the stumble made Matt look her in the face for the first time since lunch and he saw her exhaustion.

“Shit, Katie,” he sighed, “you should have said something. There are lots of benches and I could have called a cab.”

“I’m fine,” she reiterated and glared. “I know my limits and I haven’t hit them yet.”

Matt found he still hadn’t let go of her elbow. She didn’t pull away, no matter how much she was glaring at him. “I’m not saying you don’t know your limits. I’m saying you should give yourself a break more often.” She still glared at him and he sighed. “You and me and the baby makes three,” he whispered. “Like you need a reminder, but really. Pushing your endurance doesn’t do the baby any favors and you know it.”

After another defiant moment, Katie looked away. Matt slowly let go of her arm, but she didn’t move away from him. “Maybe I could use a break. Even a lie-down.”

“Should I get a taxi?”

“I’d appreciate it.”

Matt ran his hand down her shoulder and smiled. “Was that so hard?”

Katie’s eyes flashed with frustrated anger when she looked up at him and he swallowed the smugness. “Yes,” she hissed. “You have no idea.” They stared at each other for a moment and she looked away first before finding a bench to sit on.

“Can I take you home? Or…”

“No,” she said softly. “I don’t think I can face Jack right now and she doesn’t work until five.”

“I can take you back to the hotel,” he offered. “I can order something up for dinner and we could nap and watch a movie.”

Katie blinked and peeked at him from under her sweep of hair. “That… would be nice, actually.” Matt grinned and turned to wave for a taxi.

He offered her his arm getting out of the taxi in front of his hotel and she accepted it with a glower that melted into appreciation when he put his hand in the small of her back. On the twelfth floor, Matt opened the door to a grungy little hotel room with a queen bed barely squeezed into it and grinned sheepishly. “It’s not much, but they had a nice week-by-week rate.”

“You’re really staying for three weeks?” Katie asked as he helped her over to the bed and she sat with a soft groan of relief.

“Yeah,” Matt said as he sat next to her. “Mandatory vacation time. I hadn’t taken my annual and they were threatening to throw me off the roof if I didn’t leave.”

“Aggressive leave policy,” Katie smiled as she stretched out on the bed and hugged a pillow under her head. “At least the bed’s nice.”

Matt bounced down on the other side of the bed, making the whole surface rock and bounce and Katie giggled. “It’s not bad. What do you want to eat?” He pulled the local delivery ads out of the drawer and started flipping through them. “Kimchee? Sauerkraut? Haggis?”

“Are you trying to make me throw up on your bed?” Katie snorted and poked his side with her finger. “There are a few good pizza places that deliver near here.” She sat up slowly and swung her legs to the side before hunching down and trying to reach her feet. “C’mon, baby,” she muttered under her breath. “Gimme another inch.”

When she had finally reached her shoes to undo the laces and kick them off, she realized Matt was watching her with interest. “That seems like it must be a production every morning.”

“I wear slip-ons if I’m working,” Katie admitted as she flopped back down. “My ankles swell like water balloons when I’ve been standing still, but it’s not as bad when I’m walking, weirdly enough.”

“How are your legs now?”

“Sore.”

Matt paused and Katie raised an eyebrow, watching him think. “You want a foot rub after I order?” he finally offered quietly. When she took a breath to answer with humor in her eyes, he pointed a finger at her. “Dead serious, Katie. It’s not weird, no fetish bullshit. I just want to know if you want me to rub your feet and ankles. We walked for a long time and I feel bad for not stopping earlier.”

“Foot rub as an apology?” she grinned at him and he shrugged, his face still serious. Katie sighed and nodded. “Okay, no bullshit. Yes, I’d appreciate a foot and leg rub. Extra cheese, green olives if they have them, pepperoni and/or sausage.” Matt smiled and nodded before picking up the phone to order.

When he was done, Matt put the phone down and scooted himself to the foot of the bed, then pulled Katie’s left leg into his lap and began to work his hand along her Achilles’ tendon. “Let me know if I’m rubbing too hard,” he murmured.

“Mmm,” Katie mumbled, going limp against the pillows. “I will.” She just let him rotate his thumb and the side of his forefinger along the sore tendon, then moaned softly when he worked his way down her heel and around the sides.

“Careful,” Matt chuckled. “You’ll make the neighbors talk if you moan like that.” His hands were strong and sure and Katie could tell he had rubbed other feet on occasion. She briefly wondered under what circumstances, then banished the thought. When he pressed his thumb into the arch of her foot firmly, she gasped and twitched. “Too much?”

“No,” Katie giggled. “Ticklish.”

“Not trying to tickle,” he assured her and she smiled at him. Once she got used to his hand on her sole, the ticklish sensation faded and she relaxed again. He kept working his thumb in circles under her arch, then worked up to the ball of her foot. “What other kinds of consulting do you do?” he murmured.

“Mm?” Katie blinked and tried to clear her head. She had been enjoying the sensation of his hands so much she hadn’t heard the question as a question until the meaning had been lost.

Matt grinned. “Consulting,” he repeated. “You said you mostly do ad consulting. What other kinds do you do?” He started running his thumb firmly from the base of her heel to the ball of her foot in steady, even strokes.

“I’ve done creative consulting, too,” Katie admitted and moaned again. “God, that feels good.”

“Glad I’m doing well,” Matt chuckled. “Creative consulting?”

“Creative writing, mostly. Some screenplays, novels, that kind of thing.” She quieted and Matt moved his hand to begin rubbing lowest part of her calf. “I’ve got a better grasp of demographics than most reclusive writers and my sociology and criminal justice classes help balance some of the less socially-aware perspectives.”

“Good grief,” Matt murmured, “what did you study in school? Or were you one of those crazy overachievers who triple-majored?”

Katie laughed and shook her head, then bit her lip on another groan of pleasure when Matt’s fingers found a knot of muscle in her calf. “Just a double. I went to community college, got an associates in marketing first, then double majored in psychology and criminal justice, minor in communications. Not an overachiever, just incredibly indecisive.”

“Well, I’m suitably impressed,” Matt told her. A knock on the door drew his attention and he stood up, leaving Katie limp on the bed. “Your dinner, madam,” he said as he presented the large pizza box and flipped it open before setting it beside her on the bed. “Anything you want to watch or do you want to keep talking?”

Katie smiled and pulled the box over to her with her fingertips. “I think I like talking with you,” she said softly. “And I’m really loving the foot rub.”

Matt grinned and sat down to resume the rub on her other foot.


End file.
